This overview of Jamaican political
development since Independence
tries to reflect on the genesis of Jamaican democracy and party politics, the
evolution of major economic and social policies, and the profile of Jamaican
public opinion. All of the themes speak to the most fundamental issues in
Jamaican democracy and a treatment of the subject without reference to each of
them would be less than adequate.

The analysis presented here represents
some core aspects of my research on Jamaican politics over an academic career
that goes back to the early 1970s. It also covers some of the major issues which
have preoccupied me asa public
scholar who writes and researches to facilitate public education in the wider
society rather than merely for the consumption of academics.

The shaping of public policy by the
emergent political parties that took over power in the transition to Independence
remains a major misunderstood and unresearched area of Jamaica's
political development.

I try to cover this theme in part one of
the paper. The role and character of public opinion in the country's politics
and the profound changes that have occurred here since the 1970s are just being
understood. This theme is dealt with in part two.

The presentation and discussion that
follow are therefore divided into these two central themes which it is hoped
will stimulate further thought and research on democratic political development
in modern Jamaica.

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Jamaica with its
small 2.3 million population and its 4.4 thousand square miles island state, is
an atypical Third World country in that has a stable two-party system in which
power has been shared by two major political parties under a British type
parliamentary constitution since Independence in 1962.'

The transition from a colonial
and authoritarian political system to representative government, democracy and
full self-government began in the post Second World War period after a
combination of labour and peasant protests3 over economic discontent
and middle class agitation for political change pressured the British colonial
administration in introducing constitutional changes. These changes evolved
gradually over the following periods:

1944
Elected majority in the legislature and universal adult suffrage;

1953
Elected representatives controlling the administration

through a ministerial system;

1959 Full internal self-government;

1962 Independence from Britain

I - PUBLIC POLICY AND
POLITICS

The
two political parties — The Peoples National Party (PNP) and the Jamaica Labour
Party (JLP) — emerged in the late 1930s and early 1940s as part of a national
political movement for change. The movement championed the cause of the black
majority and sought to democratize a political system dominated by white and
light-skinned planters and merchants. The black majority traces its roots back
to Africa, slavery and the old sugar plantation system. They had been
effectively excluded from channels of political participation and influence.
Although both parties have always had strong trade union ties, the PNP was more
associated with demands for self-government while the JLP was linked mainly
with working class demands for improved living standards a recognition of the
rights of labour.

The populist character of these
two political parties and the strong emotional party loyalties that shaped
their mass support have their origins in the role they played in democratizing
the Jamaican political system in a society characterized by sharp racial and
class divisions and antagonisms. In the eyes of the majority of the poorer
classes, the mass parties represented their only means through which to
influence the Jamaican power structure.

Policy
Differences in the PNP and the JLP

Both
parties have always been multi-class and multi-racial alliances drawing their
support from all strata of the society. [Both parties share a perception that]
some state regulation of the economy in the national interests; a broadly held
consensus that the state must provide social services for the citizens and
economic services and infrastructure for those engaged in production through
social reforms and legislation; and a common commitment to political patronage
whereby scarce benefits that flow from government policies and expenditure
(jobs, housing, contracts, etc.) are allocated to party supporters.

As these political parties took control over policy making
in the

postwar period,
major changes occurred in the country's social policies in contrast with the
policy trends of the earlier colonial period.

These social policies involved
expanding the education system providing more opportunities for the poorer
classes, enlargement andimprovement in health services, the building of
housing accommodation for the poorer classes, providing a wide range of
agricultural services and financial support for small farmers, and establishing
a national insurance scheme for retired workers.

To a large extent, this push
towards wide ranging social policies designed to benefit the poorer classes was
facilitated by the rapid growth and diversification of the Jamaican economy
over the period between 1950 and 1970. This economic expansion provided the
income base from which an enlarged role for the state in social and economic
services to the poor could be financed.

Comparative data from the World
Bank's World Tables (Second Edition, 1980) confirm that Jamaica with a 6.5 per
cent growth rate had the highest rate of per capita GDP growth between 1950 and
1960 in the Caribbean and Latin American region. Jamaica also followed this up
with a 3 per cent per capita GDP growth rate which was the fourth highest rate
of growth in the region between 1960 and 1970, after Puerto Rico, Barbados and
Mexico.

As the following data show,
public spending was pushed at a faster pace of growth than the overall growth
of GDP over these periods confirming the urgency with which the Jamaican state
assumed a larger role in the economy as the political system was democratized
and pressures were built up for greater levels of public spending to meet the
needs of the newly enfranchised masses and to fulfill the populist promises
made to them by the parties' leaders for a better quality of life.

TABLE 1: GROWTH RATES FOR JAMAICA,
1950-70

1950-601960-651965-70

Real GDP8.13.75.1

Central Govt.

consumption

of
expenditure8.86.413.0

Source: World Tables,
World Bank (Second Edition), 1980

It is to be noted that the gap between
overall GDP growth and the faster increases in central government consumption
expenditure increased between the decade of the 1950s and the early 1960s and
accelerated evenfurther in the
second half of the decade. The growth gap widened asthe development
policy commitments and social policy pressures on the newly elected democratic
political directorates generated increases in public spending.

Table 2 outlines the increases in
public spending over the period between 1938 and 1970. Overall government
expenditure which includes the capital cost of establishing development
projects, new institutions and economic and social infrastructure grow even
faster than consumption expenditure which underestimates the rate of public
sector growth as the political system democratized. The growth was even further
accelerated during the 1970s because of the 'big government' orientation and
more pronounced socialist emphasis of the PNP in that period.

TABLE 2: PERCENTAGE PUBLIC
EXPENDITURE OVER GDP

Central Government Consumption Expenditure %

19385

19505

19607

197012

198023

National
Income Reports, 1940-81,
Department of Statistics, Kingston Dept of Statistics,Kingston

Total Capital and Recurrent Expenditure %

9

13 16 21 43

With respect to the educational area
of social policy, the emergence of an elected political executive coincides
with a very substantial increase in primary and secondary school enrolment and
the building of increased accomodation for students
at both levels of the educational system. As Table three makes clear, over the
1950 to 1970 period, primary school enrollment grew from 68 per cent of
children of school age to 85 per cent and secondary school enrolment expanded
from 6 per cent to 58. This is in sharp contrast to the marginal rates of
increase before universal adult suffrage (1944). The massive expansion in
secondary education was facilitated by government financing of free places in
the early 1950s and the large increase in secondary school buildings.

A
para1lel expansion in the health services and improved nutrition (accompanying
a rise in living standards resulted in a dramatic improvement in health
indicators such as infant mortality and impressive growth in life expectancy
levels. Table 4 sets out comparative data for other countries which confirm the
considerable improvements experienced in

Jamaican
health indicators in the postwar period as the economy grew and health services
expanded.

Jamaica's
infant mortality and life expectancy levels have improved steadily in the
postwar years to a point where the country's indicators are considerably above
the Third World norm, moderately better than that for middle income countries
and only slightly below industrialized countries. In the case of infant
mortality improvements, the rate of change in Jamaica matches that achieved in
the United of America (USA) over the 1938 to 1980 period and is considerably
above that achieved in most middle income developing countries.

Much of this is
due to increased spending on health services as overall public spending
increased.

The overall
increases in health, education, housing and welfare expenditure as a percentage
of GDP fully reflect the impact of political democratization as is shown from
the following data.

TABLE 5: INCREASE IN SOCIAL
EXPENDITURES

Health, Education, Housing and Welfare Expenditure by
Government as a Percentage of

GDP 1938196019701975

2.8%5.6%6.4%12.1%

To
facilitate an expansion of agricultural services to small farmers, agriculture's
claim on the budget more than doubled between 1938 (5 per cent) and
Independence in 1962 (12 per cent). These services included extension
facilities, credit, and marketing.4 Technical staff in the
agricultural departments expanded from 45 in 1930 to 676 in 1970 to accommodate
this extension of services to small farmers that in the earlier colonial period
were exclusively reserved for big farmers engaged in traditional export crops
such as sugar and banana. As a result of land distribution policies adopted by
successive elected governments in the postwar period, the percentage of small
farmers owning land in­creased from 60 per cent in 1943 to 80 per cent in 1962
when Jamaica achieved self-government.

In the area of
housing, the new thrust towards an accelerated social policy emphasis was also
evident as elected executives took over public policy. Only since the emergence
of an elected executive has there been any large scale government construction
of housing. As a consequence of government efforts to help meet the needs for
shelter among the lower income groups as well as among the middle income
strata., approximately 50000 housing units were constructed by suc­cessive PNP
and JLP governments between Independence in 1962 and 1985, representing 75 per
cent of the new housing built over the period, if we exclude self-help
construction.

Between 1962
and 1971, the JLP during its two terms of office immediately after Independence
constructed new housing at a rate of 1500 per annum. The PNP followed this over
the 1972 to 1980 period of a similar two terms in office by building at an even
higher rate of 2500 units per annum, accelerating from 1 500 annual production
over the 1972-74 period to 2 800 per annum in the 1975-1977 period and to 3400
per annum over the 1978 to 1980 period as the country approached the 1980
elections.

The JLP
continued the momentum of housing construction estab­lished by the PNP in the
1970s by simply completing projects designed in the PNP period. As a result,
the 1981—83 period witnessed a high3 000 housing units built each year. Budgetary pressures generated by
the effort to cut the fiscal budget after 1983 significantly reduced real
spending by government in all social areas and especially in are covering
capital expenditures for social purposes such as housing. As consequence,
between the 1984 to 1986 period the level of housing construction by government
declined to slightly below the 1 000 units per year level to 800 units per
annum.

The elected
political executives placed a high premium on government constructed housing.5
Beyond its social and economic value, it has major political meaning in that it
represents a prime area of political patronage allocations and an opportunity
to establish political strong holds by careful selection of who gets
opportunities for access to the housing schemes. In the typical case, JLP and
PNP governments pack the housing schemes they construct with persons who are
strong party supporters. The result is the creation of tightly knit, politically
partisan communities that reflect strong one-party tendencies.

Access to housing is a highly valued area of political 'scarce benefit
of which the highly politicized among the poor have been beneficiaries. Given
the low profitability of housing construction for low income families, the
state had to take a lead and assume major responsibility for this area of
uplifting the quality of life of the poor.

Consequently
with their commitment to social reform, successive JLP and PNP governments
initiated important areas of social legislation in the postwar period. The
traditional policy of dealing with poverty through stigmatized poor relief
institutions gave way to a National Insurance Act (1965) which provided old age
pensions, invalidity benefits and disablement benefits as well as benefits for
dependents for a workers contributing to the scheme.

Minimum wages were prescribed
under the 1938 legislation by government proclamations applying minimum rates
to specific sectors of the labour force such as printers and bakers. An
amendment to the 1941 Employment of Women Law extended the protection on limits
to the working hours of women in 1956. Local skills and professions were
protected by the 1965 Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens (Employment
Act) which restricted the employment of foreign national.

In the 1970s major labour
legislation was introduced by the socialist

PNP
as part of its effort to capture increased working class support. The
Employment Termination and Redundancy Payment Act (1975) protected workers from
unfair and arbitrary dismissals and provide for redress and compensation in
circumstances of unfair dismissal. The 1975 Employment (Equal pay for Men and
Women) Act establish equality in wage rates for men and women in similar
employment. The Labour Relations and Industrial Disputes Act (1975) provided
for compulsory recognition of trade unions by employers and established,
procedure involving the Ministry of Labour for determining workers choice of
the union to represent them. In 1976 The Minimum Wage Law was amended to
implement for the first time a national minimum wage applicable to all sectors
of employment in the economy. This minimum wage has been periodically adjusted
upwards to keep pace with inflation trends.

In spite of
ideological differences between the two major parties 1940s and 1950s, their
economic policies over the 1950 to 1970 period converged rather closely. There
was bipartisan consensus on the two major economic policy initiatives of the
period, namely, the promotion of foreign investment (in bauxite, tourism,
manufacturing, and the development of a local manufacturing industry.

In 1944 an
Economic Policy Committee established by the colonial govenor
and chaired by a British Economist, Dr F.C. Benham,
opposed the provision of tariff protection to facilitate local manufacturing
development.The Committee dismissed
manufacturing production as a real option for Jamaica, reflecting the colonial
thinking which saw economies like Jamaica as permanent markets for industrial
goods from Britain and as having no future outside of agriculture. This
Committee was the first major initiative towards developing a local policy
perspective on economies strategies for Jamaica in the colonial period.

Between 1944 and
the mid-1950s this policy perspective on economic strategies changed radically
as elected politicians came into full control of domestic economic policy.
Greater self-confidence was infused into the business class as the political
system was democratized. Urban merchant interest took on the challenge of
shifting from merely being commission agents of foreign manufacturing companies
to creating a local manufacturing sector6 with state support and
protection.

The new policy
thrust was pioneered by a black Jamaican entrepreneur, Robert Lightbourne, who had returned from Britain after
establishing himself as an industrialist in Birmingham. He was brought back to
Jamaica in 1951 by the JLP to establish the Jamaica Industrial Development
Corporation which had the job of promoting the manufacturing sector. Following
the lead given by the JLP, the PNP government (elected 1955) passed the two
main instruments of legislation around which new industrial policies were
developed. These were the Industrial Initiatves Law
and the Export Industry Encouragement Law, both passed in 1956.

A period of
industrial expansion unfolded between 1956 and 1967 when production in
furniture, metal products, chemicals, food processing, garments and footware expanded rapidly. The period coincided with
parallel expansion in bauxite, tourism and other services which all gave rise
to a vibrant, new and increasingly wealthy and influential entrepreneurial
class. The political directorate treated the interests of the new entrepreneurs
as equal to the interests of the economy as a whole as the country's economic
future seemed hinged on their continued expansion. They had easy access to the
corridors of policy advice was sought after by the relatively inexperienced
political directorate. They effectively replaced planters as the dominant
owning interests after the earlier decline in plantation agriculture in the
first two decades of the twentieth century due to low profitability, market
displacement and loss of market share in Britain.

JLP and PNP
policy convergence of the 1950s and 1960s collapsed and gave way to sharp
policy divergence in the second half of the 1970s when the PNP articulated a
radical socialist position which sought to re-structure the economy and society
along democratic socialist lines.The JLP's reaction was to affirm an opposing pro-capitalist or
pro-free enterprise position that was sharply critical of these socialist
policies.

A number of
factors contributed to this shift in PNP ideology which created an enlarged
ideological distance between the two parties. A new wave of populist redicalism had emerged after Independence outside of the
two major parties and had fomented protest violence in that period. The
movement articulated race and class issues and challenged the political system
as having sold out to conservative interests. Its activist support came from
the inner city ghettoes of Kingston its leadership from minority tendencies
among the black intelligentsia. It spoke out militantly against race and class
oppression and the absence of social justice in Jamaica. Both the leadership
and activists in this movement of those who felt alienated in the
post-Independence period rallied behind the new PNP leader Michael Manley who
succeed father, Norman Manley, as party leader in 1969. A number of bright militants
within this movement emerged as leaders within the (D.K. Duncan and Arnold
Bertram for example). The younger Manley had limited his activities to trade
unionism before he took over the PNP's leadership. As
a new leader on the political scene who seemed unblemished by corrupting
connections with the established politicians and the power structure, the new
wave of radicals embraced Manleyand he in turn saw his political
mission as radicalizing Jamaican politics to incorporate these alienated
elements into the mainstream of the country's political system.

Manley was
also influenced by the thinking of the 'New World’ radical intelligentsia at
the UWI and their criticisms of so-called neo-colonial' economic policies and
dependence on foreign capital in the 1950s and 1960s as well as by their bias
towards socialist solutions and nationalist strategies of economic ownership
and control.

The third
major influence was Manley's desire to establish himself as a Third World
leader. This leadership promotion required close collaboration with the
existing radical leftist leadership in the non-aligned Third World movement all
of whom were ostensibly committed to socialism as a development approach and
embraced varying versions of so-called non-capitalist development strategies.
These leaders included Fidel Castro of Cuba, Julius Nyerere
of Tanzania, Colonel MaummarQaddafy
of Libya and Colonel Boumedienne of Algeria.